Belarus said it had no choice but to host Russia's nuclear weapons after US and its allies escalated support for Ukraine

Russian Yars ballistic nuclear missiles on mobile launchers roll through Red Square during the Victory Day military parade rehearsals on May 6, 2018, in Moscow, Russia.

Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

• Belarus said it had no choice but to host Russia's tactical nuclear weapons. 
• A senior Belarusian official said the weapons were "strategic deterrence" against the West.
• Another official said it was the "effective response" to increasing NATO aid to Ukraine. 

Multiple Belarusian senior officials have defended the country's decision to host Russia's tactical nuclear weapons, saying they had no choice after increasing aggression from the US and its NATO allies.

On Sunday, Alexander Volfovich, state secretary of Belarus' Security Council, said the deal with Russia would discourage Western retaliation in the area. "The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus is therefore one of the steps of strategic deterrence" against the West, Volfovich said, according to Reuters.

"If there remains any reason in the heads of Western politicians, of course, they will not cross this red line," he added. 

Another official, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, also used the deal to directly address the US and its Western allies, The Washington Post reported, saying: "Deployment of nonstrategic nuclear weapons is an effective response to the aggressive policy of countries unfriendly to us."

According to the Post, Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu added: "In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere." 

Russia and Belarus signed the deal last week formalizing the deployment of the tactical nuclear weapons after Russian President Vladimir Putin originally announced the plan earlier this year. It comes as Ukraine prepares for a long-anticipated counteroffense supported by a hoard of Western weapons from the US and NATO, potentially including F-16 fighter jets. 

While Moscow will retain control of the tactical nuclear weapons, the Post reported, it's unclear when exactly they'll arrive to the recently built storage facilities in Belarus. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, however, said last week that the weapons were already on their way, Reuters said. 

It's currently unclear how many tactical nuclear weapons will be deployed, the Post added. 

 

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